Bounty on Conservative Nomination Candidate Signals China’s Election Interference, Rights Advocates Say

Joe Tay, a singer and actor who moved from Hong Kong to Canada, is seen in a file photo. Tay is a candidate for the Conservative Party nomination in the Ontario riding of Markham-Unionville.

Critics say the Hong Kong government’s arrest warrant and bounty against activist Joe Tay, a candidate for federal Conservative Party nomination, signals renewed Chinese interference in Canada’s elections.

Tay is seeking the Conservative nomination in Ontario’s Markham-Unionville riding. Hong Kong’s measures, announced on Dec. 24, 2024, targeted Tay along with five other rights advocates, including fellow Canadian Victor Ho based in Vancouver. The six were accused of having committed offences under the Chinese regime’s national security law for Hong Kong, a controversial statute that has been used to charge democracy activists with secession, subversion, and collusion with foreign forces.

“I think it’s very difficult for people not to think about [China] trying to interfere with his chance of being nominated as a Conservative candidate. I wish it is not, but I’m challenged to find a different answer,” former Conservative MP Kenny Chiu, who was himself targeted by the Chinese regime during the 2021 election, told The Epoch Times.

Chiu questioned the Hong Kong authorities’ decision to charge Tay under the national security law, noting that Tay “has not advocated for a secession.” Tay was a well-known actor and singer in Hong Kong in the 1980s and ’90s before moving to Canada with his family in 1995.

In contrast, Chiu pointed to Ho, a veteran journalist and the other Canadian targeted in the Hong Kong bounty. Ho is a co-founder of the Hong Kong Parliament Electoral Organizing Committee, a Toronto-based group aiming to create an “exile” Hong Kong parliament.

Chiu said the charges brought against Ho by Beijing-controlled Hong Kong authorities stems from Ho’s activism to create the exile Hong Kong parliament, while Tay isn’t part of that movement.

“So the excuse they use against Joe Tay seems quite superficial, and therefore they can’t avoid people linking it to their attempt to interfere with his possibility of being nominated,” Chiu said.

Journalist Victor Ho in Richmond, B.C., on Aug. 24, 2022. The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck

The federal government launched a public inquiry into foreign interference in September 2023, following extensive media coverage starting in late 2022 of Chinese influence in Canada’s last two federal elections. The inquiry’s interim report, released in May 2024, said that while the interference did not alter the overall election outcome, there was evidence of Chinese influence in some ridings, including Chiu’s riding of Steveston-Richmond East in B.C.

Chiu was targeted in a disinformation campaign on the Chinese social media platform WeChat during the 2021 race, which he lost. Other politicians also fell victim to similar disinformation and influence operations, including former Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole, Conservative MP Michael Chong, and NDP MP Jenny Kwan, the inquiry found.

Back in July 2023, Canadian Dennis Kwok was targeted by Hong Kong authorities with an arrest warrant and a HK$1 million bounty (roughly C$186,000). A former Hong Kong legislator, Kwok was disqualified in 2020 for his pro-democracy stance, including his opposition to the national security law.

Lawmaker Dennis Kwok (C) stands outside the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong on Nov. 8, 2016, after a silent march in protest of a ruling by China that effectively barred two pro-independence legislators from taking office. Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images

Interference in 2025 Election

Gloria Fung, president of advocacy group Canada-Hong Kong Link, echoes the view that the targeting of Tay is “an act of election interference.” Citing anonymous sources within the diaspora community, she said there is evidence of disinformation against Tay circulating on the Chinese app WeChat, likening it to the 2021 operation targeting Chiu.

In response to Hong Kong’s announcement of the arrest warrants for Tay and five others on Dec. 24, Global Affairs Canada issued a statement on the same day condemning the Hong Kong authorities for targeting democracy activists who have fled abroad after Beijing’s clampdown on civil liberties in the city.

Fung pointed out that, instead of reporting on the federal government’s statement, WeChat posts echoed Hong Kong’s claims that Tay violated the national security law and was allegedly engaged in subversion. She noted that these campaigns target members of the Chinese and Hong Kong diaspora and exploit their political naivety and limited access to Canadian news.

“We should be very alert to this development because it could mean the beginning of another round of disinformation campaigns related to the 2025 federal election,” Fung said.

President of Canada-Hong Kong Link Gloria Fung reads a joint statement signed by nearly 50 groups across the country that are concerned about the situation in Hong Kong. NTD

In June 2024, a cabinet bill aimed at creating a foreign agent registry was passed into law, along with measures to increase penalties and enhance capabilities to address foreign interference. The registry would require those working on behalf of foreign entities to register with the government.

Officials from Public Safety Canada had said that, upon passage of the legislation, it would take another year before the registry became operational. In December 2024, they said they were working toward having the registry in place by June 2025.

Fung, who previously called for the registry to be implemented before the next federal election, urges the government to introduce a contingency plan outlining what Canadians can do to combat potential foreign interference in 2025, noting that an election is likely to be called earlier than the scheduled date in October.

As of early December, the Liberals had survived three Conservative non-confidence votes with support from the NDP and, on some votes, the Bloc Québécois. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh on Dec. 20 announced plans to table a non-confidence motion aimed at bringing down the minority Liberal government. Singh said the NDP motion would be introduced in the next sitting of the House of Commons, which was set to resume on Jan. 27 before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prorogued Parliament on Jan. 6.

Additionally, Fung urged the federal government to reassess its relations with Hong Kong. She noted that since the city has lost its economic freedoms and rule of law, Ottawa should revoke its special trade and immigration privileges, close the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Canada, and sanction officials and judges responsible for human rights abuses under the national security law.

In December, Global Affairs Canada announced sanctions against eight former or current senior Chinese Communist Party officials for “grave human rights violations” against Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetans, and Uyghurs.